Book Club - Department of Asian Studies

South Asian Studies Book Club

The South Asia book club is an opportunity to discuss books, primarily fiction, about South Asia and / or the desi diaspora, prioritizing authors who are South Asian or of South Asian descent. We meet 2-3 times a semester. The book club is an informal opportunity to discuss novels of shared interest over tea/coffee.

All members within the SASI community and beyond are welcome. limited number of FREE copies of book selections are available upon request, courtesy of funding from the Weiss Research Collaborative.

Initiated in 2024-25, we have thus far discussed four books:

A History of Burning
by Janika Oza

In 1898, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labor for the British on the East African Railway. Far from home, Pirbhai commits a brutal act in the name of survival that will haunt him and his family for years to come.

Brotherless Night
by V. V. Ganeshananthan

Set during the early years of Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war, Brotherless Night is a heartrending portrait of one woman’s moral journey and a testament to both the enduring impact of war and the bonds of home.

The Many Lives of Syeda X
by Neha Dixit

What does the life of an ordinary working-class Indian look and feel like? In this outstanding book, the award winning journalist Neha Dixit traces the story of one such faceless Indian woman, from the early 1990s to the present day. What emerges is a picture of a life lived under constant corrosive tension.

The Spaces Between Us
by Thrity Umrigar

Set in contemporary Bombay, ‘The Space Between Us’ tells the story of Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife and Bhima, the woman who works as a domestic servant in her home. Despite their class differences, the two women are bound by the bonds of gender and shared life experiences

For more information, please contact:

Aparna Parikh

Assistant Teaching Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies

Research Interests: South Asian comparative urbanism; South Asian and transnational feminisms; Hindutva nationalism

South Asian Studies

South Asian Studies Book Club

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan

The Many Lives of Syeda X by Neha Dixit

The Spaces Between Usby Thrity Umrigar

A History of Burning
by Janika Oza

Brotherless Night
by V. V. Ganeshananthan

The Many Lives of Syeda X
by Neha Dixit

The Spaces Between Us
by Thrity Umrigar